After a holiday season (shoot – it’s been since summer) of absolute gluttony my body is screaming for me to be more healthy. A bought of the stomach flu was the perfect transition in to living a healthier lifestyle. It made me quit junk food cold turkey. And it made me not like coffee!!! I’m drinking it again, and like it finally, but I’m no longer drinking more than one cup a day and some days I don’t even finish that first one. I mean, I don’t recommend trying to go find someone with the stomach flu to infect you. But if you want to start off the new year being a little more health conscious, I suggest starting with water. Easy, right?

We all need more water each day. And while we need the calcium from milk, we really don’t need any other types of drinks if we are trying to be eating more cleanly. Well, wine. You HAVE to have wine. So I’ve been drinking a bunch of water but it can get a little boring. I’ve started adding a drop of my fave citrus based essential oils to my glass to take things up a notch. Oh yeah, and I totally fell down the essential oil rabbit hole. (So I’m totally in love with them and was spending so much with my dealer – I call her that because it is a little bit like buying crack – that she had me sign up to be a wellness advocate so I can now sell them. I promise this blog won’t turn in to a hard sell of essential oils, but I will share them from time to time. My mind is vibrating with all kinds of ideas of how to use them in the kitchen! {not all are ok for ingesting – read labels, yo!}) You guys! I’ve been using a blend for my allergies that has changed my life. Maybe it is a placebo but WHATEVER! They help my symptoms and headaches but nothing else it all smells amazing!

Just a drop of this Wild Orange oil adds huge flavor to my water. And since the oil is derived from orange peels, it tastes like real orange. I’m not going to lie, it made my lips burn a little. But really it just felt like one of those lip plumper lipsticks. Wild Orange oil has “immune-enhancing benefits and is energizing and revitalizing to the mind and body.” At least that is what my book says because I literally just started using oils a few weeks ago and am still learning what each thing does. My kids like to have it in the diffuser too which is awesome for when you are having people over. It smells like you just cleaned your house! Water with essential oils is my new jam. And wine. I won’t quit you wine!

Looking for non-essential oil ways to drink more water? Try these recipes:

Visit my doTerra page if you want to see more about essential oils. OMG you guys, for real, the BREATHE blend is perfect for those days when my allergy medicine just isn’t cutting it. If you have a fave oil, let me know in the comments so I can keep learning. And I thought my husband was going to freak out but he started to feel sick and asked me to put some OnGuard on to his feet! Miracles do happen. Or if you have questions, email me! cupcakesandcutlery@gmail dot com.

So, I guess I’m really going for it this summer with all these posts about myself. I mean, I showed you my big old face last week, wrinkles and all. I’ve shared my scars with you. Well today I’m sharing my cellulite, stretch marks and body image issues with you. If you are a regular reader, you know I like to keep it real. But I also think it is really healthy for me to share this stuff with you. For years I wouldn’t leave the house without blow drying and straightening my hair. But I am WAY past that now and it has been very freeing. Ok, well I still always have makeup but my hair is air dried. But I have another goal for myself. One that I think many other people also have. So let’s encourage each other and see if we can all free one of our body image phobias. It has been YEARS since I’ve worn shorts. Yes, I wore them once last summer in Palm Springs. And guess what, I wore them a few Saturdays ago to the grocery store. But I’d really like to get to a place where I feel confidant enough to through them on whenever it’s hot out. When was the last time you wore shorts? Are you afraid of them like I am?

I bought this CUTE black shorts romper from Old Navy while on a vacation in May. I have not worn it yet except to take these pictures in the safety of Lauren’s back yard. I didn’t even wear it home. I changed back in to my other clothes before I left. Why does it have to be this way? For me, I think my image issues are two-fold. Half of it is man-made (ie my cellulite from my love affair with Pop Tarts and my love handles from all those desserts) and the stretch marks I had no control over from growing very fast. The chalk-white skin doesn’t help anything but since worshipping the sun is out for me, I can only rely on creams to give them color (if I want a nice orangey hue). I see all kinds of people wearing shorts and it is encouraging to me that one day I’ll be able to wear them too without a second thought. And since I had a trip to Mexico coming up, where it is like a trillion degrees, I knew that I would HAVE to wear shorts.

It took all my effort to play it cool standing still for Lauren to take these photos. Sitting is a whole other problem. I was so uncomfortable sitting in these shorts! I know that we always see our flaws in a much more pronounced way than others. I’m choosing to share these photos on here in an effort to help myself overcome my fear of people judging my flaws, which most people wouldn’t do unless they are total a-holes. Since the beginning of June, I have really changed my diet and have started seeing some crazy improvements. It really is true, diet and exercise works. I haven’t put too much emphasis on the exercise portion yet, but the diet has helped me start to improve my body from the inside out. As well as how I view my body. I don’t have a scale so I can only go by how my clothes are fitting and the fact that my muffin top is almost gone! Huzzah! So the other day when it was super hot and I had to run out to the store, I felt like I could finally reach for a pair of shorts. I texted 3 different people to let them know I was outside in shorts and I climbed in my car to do my grocery shopping. Guess what? No one laughed at me or my legs. Liberating. I felt proud that I had really made a difference with my lifestyle for the better and was able to change some of my problem areas just with making better choices. And there are things that I can do for the stretch marks as well. I can’t wait to try out this body scrub from Frank which targets cellulite, stretch marks, eczema and more. I get that it will take more than just a scrub to completely erase my trouble areas, but it is nice to know there are things, especially made from natural ingredients, that might help them out.

Before I left for Mexico I got a spray tan since I knew it would help me feel more confidant in my shorts and DEFINITELY in my swimsuit. Our first full day there, I wore shorts. And I didn’t hate it! I made Lauren take a picture as proof. This is my best Giselle pose. Because I am sure she throws herself in to a corner to get THE shot. We walked around town all day and I ended up loving wearing the shorts. I felt like a huge hurdle was cleared. I wore shorts the next day as well. And when I got home, I didn’t hesitate to put on shorts. As my tan is gone at this point, I do feel a little more self conscious about wearing them. But it is WAY less than it was at the start of summer. I’m going to keep up with my healthy eating and perhaps add in a little more exercise. Perhaps. But I have some bad news to report. I wore those adorable ruffled black shorts one time and since they got ocean water on them I washed them when I got home. I hand washed them and hung them to dry. They totally shrunk! Such a bummer! I think I can still wear them but only to the pool. I would NEVER go to the store in them now as I think they may frown on actually seeing that much of a woman’s bum.

Now can we talk for a second about my man hands? This is another problem area for me. I mean, look at that dainty little wrist. And then look at that gorilla hand hanging off of it.

I mean, a girl should be able to drink out of a punchbowl and not feel like she is in a Seinfeld episode. I was going to share this image last year on Instagram but didn’t because my man hand was just too much to share. So here it is. Although diet is not going to change my opinion or size of my hands, I’m going to let my insecurities about them go. What are the insecurities you need to let go of? Will you pledge to wear shorts with me this summer and beyond?

I decided to sit my kids down the other day to see if I could figure out some healthier snacking options for them. I started off by asking them what their favorite junk foods are. My oldest said, “the middle of those chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate caramel pretzel granola bars, lattes (He’s joking, he’s never had a latte. That I am aware of.) and ice cream. My youngest said, “ice cream, any kind of chocolate, pretty much all candy and gummy fruit snacks.” I wasn’t surprised by their answers. And that was a good starting point for trying to give them better options while still getting a little bit of what they want. What do you think your kids would say?

Studies show that dark chocolate has good properties, right? And moderation is the key. So I am fine including chocolate in their snacking. But I make sure that it isn’t the entire snack and that I pair it with fruit or pretzels, both of which go AMAZING with dark chocolate. This way, they aren’t eating an entire chocolate bar, or a bunch of chocolate candy, but getting a little to satisfy their cravings.

My youngest would happily survive on gummy snacks if I let him. So I decided to try swapping them with straight up dried fruit. While there is still a lot of sugar in dried fruit, there isn’t all the other funky chemicals like in those crazy-colored, super chewy fruit gummies. At least I am pretty sure there isn’t all that other stuff in there…

Sometimes they ask for chips or sugar cereals for a snack. Due to food allergies, we can’t give them nuts, but salted sunflower seeds are a great substitute. They are crunchy and salty with good fats which their little bodies need. I, on the other hand, need to be careful with these in the house because I want to eat them by the spoonful. So yummy.

When they get home from school I like to give them a snack that is a little bit more hearty. If I don’t, I find they ask for more food several times leading up to dinner. For this snack I make Sunbutter and banana “quesadillas”. There is no cheese in these, they just look like a quesadilla. The Sunbutter is a great substitute for peanut butter (dumb allergies) and the banana is a nice sweet touch. You can make it even a little bit more decadent by spraying a non-stick pan with a little bit of spray oil and then grilling it up. Oh man. Try this. [Read more…]